Minor changes application to PA 17/00852/B involving alterations to retail unit, car parking, cladding, and retaining walls

Refusal Reasons

• ✗Approval is sought to make changes to the elevations of the retail building; majority of which have already been implemented and as such would fail to pass for a minor change application given that they have been completed. Overall, it may be that the net impact of some of these changes on the site and surrounding area is reduced, however this would be a balanced judgement and certainly the impact on the area would be materially different. Overall, it is therefore considered that given the nature/level of change, these should be assessed by way of full planning application and exceed the level of change that should be dealt with through a Minor Change Application.
• ✗The proposed erection of a double garage on plot 15 is in itself a departure from the approved scheme as it would introduce to the site a building without any supporting plans and information to effectively determine its impact and whether it was acceptable: if it would pass as permitted development then it would not need planning approval. This, added to the creation of a balancing pond in lieu of an underground attenuation system, the erection of the wall on the boundary of the landscaped area between plots 17 and 22 (which rises to over 2m on some sections), together with the alteration of the parking area by the retail building to remove a turning area and add five more parking spaces would cumulatively change the character and appearance of the site, in addition to altering the associated impacts and as such are not considered to be minor when compared with the approved scheme, and are a departure from some of the conditions upon which the original application was approved contrary to 23(1)a, b, d and e.